


Kind Heart and Keen Eyes

by DesertVixen



Category: Knives Out (2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Harlan Thrombey Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:40:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28234065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: Canon-divergent AU: Harlan Thrombey lives and calls in Benoit Blanc for assistance
Relationships: Benoit Blanc & Marta Cabrera, Marta Cabrera & Harlan Thrombey
Comments: 18
Kudos: 96
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Kind Heart and Keen Eyes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Spacecadet72](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spacecadet72/gifts).



Something was not right. She had been annoyed when Harlan tipped over the Go board because he was a sore loser, but it made her really look at the medicine vials when she picked them up.

And they were wrong. Marta couldn’t say precisely what the problem was – the labels looked fine – but she knew there was one. 

That made her look at her medical bag a little closer. She kept it in Harlan’s rooms since she only gave him meds up here, but the door was never locked. There was nothing to stop anyone from making their way up here and messing with her bag – and tonight had been a full house. 

A full house full of people who he’d just given some unwelcome news to. No one would have noticed if someone slipped away from the party and came up here. Marta might not be sure what was wrong with the meds, but she was sure of one thing. Someone had been in her bag. They’d been fairly careful, but enough things were just slightly out of place.

So Marta tuned out Harlan’s teasing and started to pull out the equipment in the bag. She was not completely surprised to find out the Naloxone was missing.

“Marta?” Harlan said, his voice finally serious. “Why aren’t you sticking a needle in me?”

She turned to face him. “They’re wrong. And the Naloxone is missing from my bag.”

“Naloxone,” he said calmly. “That’s in case you give me too much morphine, right?”

She nodded. “That’s right.”

“So what if, just as a hypothetical question, you didn’t notice that there was something wrong with the medicine bottles?” His voice was cool and dry. They might have been discussing the weather, rather than the possibility that someone had tried to use her to kill him.

Because, she realized with a shiver, that looked like it was precisely what someone had tried to do.

Marta nodded. “I would have given you one hundred milligrams of morphine, and that would have killed you because the Naloxone is missing and we’re too far out for an ambulance to make it in time.”

“So, it looks very much as if someone tried to murder me. It’s really an ingenious method,” he said, reaching for a notepad. “I must note this down for later use.”

“How can you be so calm about this?” Marta looked at him. “One of them tried to kill you.”

“Yes, it is rather like one of my mystery plots, isn’t it? Rich old man whose relatives expect to inherit millions at his death is bumped off with a whole house full of suspects. Whodunnit?”

“They were all here. Except Ransom,” she said after a moment. Harlan’s spoiled grandson had left the party earlier than expected in an angry huff. “What did you say to him?”

“I told him that I was cutting them all off.” He had a faraway look in his eyes. “More bluntly than the others.”

“Were you trying to get one of them to kill you?” Marta asked sharply.

Harlan shook his head. 

“What do we do now?” 

“You’re going to leave. You’re going to draw attention to yourself, ensure that everyone knows you’re leaving. Then you’re going to pull off the road before the carved elephant, and sneak back here. Come back on foot – the dogs know you, so they shouldn’t bark – and come in through the trick window.”

“The one on the third floor?” Marta said with a sinking feeling.

“Exactly. But before you come back to the house, I want you to use your cell phone and call this number.” He handed her a business card. “If he answers, tell him I want him to come by the house at his earliest convenience. If you have to, leave a message.”

Marta took the card and read it. The name – Benoit Blanc – meant nothing to her, so she simply nodded. “And then what?”

Harlan gave her a quick smile, not entirely pleasant. “Then we’ll have a slumber party.”

*** 

“Fifteen minutes,” Harlan said in a low voice as Marta eased the door open. “What took so long?”

Marta glared at him. “Part of the trellis broke off under my weight.”

“Did he answer?”

She shook her head. “I left a message.” 

“I want you to stay until early morning. Just as a precaution,” he said as dismay showed on her face.

She must have dozed off because the sound of the dogs barking woke her with a start. Harlan was awake as well, listening to the sound. Twenty minutes later, he nodded. “It will be safe for you to leave now, I think. Come tomorrow around eleven?”

“Come back today around eleven, you mean?” Marta glanced at her watch. Three-fifteen. “Are you going to be okay by yourself?”

Harlan sighed. “I expect I will still be alive when you return.”

*** 

When she arrived at eleven, Marta was relieved to see Harlan was well. The whole way home she had worried about him, and her sleep had been fitful. 

Harlan was sitting in his office with a man she had never met – a slim blond man in a battered tweed suit.

“Benoit,” Harlan said, “this is Marta Cabrera, my nurse and sometime bodyguard. Marta, this is Benoit Blanc, the detective.”

“Ah, Ms. Cabrera. You left the voicemail?”

She nodded.

“I’ve been telling Harlan that he’s lucky to have you. You have a kind heart, and you are observant.” Benoit Blanc spread his hands. “If not for you, things could have gone very badly last night.”

She envisioned herself giving Harlan the wrong medication, searching for the Naloxone, watching her friend die because he’d made someone very unhappy. It was a horrible vision, especially when she realized that she could have been blamed for his death. The rest of the family might enjoy saying how they thought of her as one of the family, but Marta knew that if it came down to her or one of them, the Thrombeys would easily throw her under a bus.

“I know,” she said simply.

“I knew this young man’s father when he was a police detective, and I have followed his career. I’ve asked him to investigate this murder attempt quietly. He’s also convinced me that I should be completely honest with you.”

Marta stared at him. “What do you mean, Harlan?”

“You see, Marta, I haven’t just written my family out of my will. I’m leaving everything to you. Everything,” he said forcefully as she started to protest. “Everything. Perhaps you will choose to give it back to them, but I hope not. They all need to learn to stand on their own. But Benoit has made me see that you might be in danger if this was known.”

She could only imagine how the Thrombeys would react to what he was saying. “It’s possible.”

“I believe I know who the culprit was, and how they did it, but I have no proof.” Harlan looked at Benoit Blanc. “I’m counting on you to find something that will prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. Marta will assist you, of course.”

Marta raised an eyebrow. “That’s hardly one of my duties.”

“You’re supposed to take care of me,” he retorted. “You’re supposed to keep me alive. This definitely falls in that category.”

She studied his face. “Who do you think it is?”

There was a sadness in the old man’s eyes for a second. “There’s only one person it could be, and the barking dogs last night proved it. I have to give him credit for moving much faster than I thought anyone would.”

“Ransom?” She blinked, then narrowed her eyes. “Is that why you made me go through that whole production last night?”

He had the grace to look a little embarrassed. “It was possible someone could have slipped upstairs from the party, but none of the others knew the extent of the will. Plus, I needed to know if it could be done, and I could hardly try it out myself.” A wry grin played on his features for a moment. “On the other hand, this is going to be the plot of my best mystery yet. I think I'll call it _Knives Out_.”

“I will get to the bottom of this,” Benoit Blanc promised, and rose. “Ms. Cabrera, I believe this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

“Please, call me Marta.” She liked him. He seemed like a man with a kind heart.

Perhaps it would be the beginning of something beautiful. She was pleased they hadn’t met under less pleasant circumstances. 

***

Two days later, when it was all over, when an unrepentant Ransom had been dragged off by the police, after being tricked by Benoit Blanc into revealing his hand, the two of them sat on the porch in the darkness.

"I must say, Marta, you make an excellent Watson. Perhaps you can give up nursing and take up detective work?"

She shook her head. "I don't think so." 

They had worked to set a trap, and Ransom had fallen right into it. But she had not enjoyed it.

He stood. "I hope that perhaps we can meet again without an attempted murder?"

She smiled. "I'd like that very much. You have my number."

"I do." As he walked away, he looked back over his shoulder. "Perhaps we can get together and discuss _Gravity's Rainbow_?"

Marta nodded and watched him go. She wondered what they might find at the terminus together.

**Author's Note:**

> So I hoped you enjoyed it! It's a little more Marta heavy or Marta & Harlan heavy, but I really liked your prompt about an AU where they meet some other way. When I saw the movie the first time, I thought that he was having her test a plot - right up until the suicide. So I enjoyed playing with that.
> 
> My apologies but titles are not my bag.


End file.
